Long week for me and the second week of my Masters classes. For the Leadership and Adventure Based Counseling class we had an interesting field trip consisting of hiking, camping, swimming, rafting, yaking, camping, hiking, climbing, rappelling, eating, caving, sleeping, caving and cleaning.
Monday we met at the Outdoor Ed building and split up the group gear (consisting of meals, some tents, cook wear and a few other misc items) We tossed those into our packs containig stuff that we needed personally. I grabbed as much heavey food as I could since I had plenty of room in my back and I also wanted a bit more of a hiking challenge. We started hiking up the Hiawasee River past the power house and then forded the river. We set up a rope to help guide people and gear across and made camp on a nice little beach near some waterfalls etc. The overall hike was about 2 miles and the camping spot was very nice with some sandy beaches and beautiful pools to swim in.
Problem was I got tossed down a waterfall when I wasn’t paying attention and got stuck sitting on a boulder and getting wedged under a tree trunk the size of telephone pole across my lap. The water level was about armpit high but the water coming over the fall was of a high volume and was powerful. Our teacher is not only a teacher but also a rescuer on the Chattanoogas Cliff and Cave rescue team. I had another student call for him and he came over to see my problem and I told him how I was stuck and what I thought I needed to get out. After securing a line around a tree to a group of pullers he tossed down the other end which i looped around under my armpits and they would pull a little while I struggled to get my legs out, then they would pull some more until I finally was able to stand up at the side of the little waterfall. During the whole thing I was calm and tried to wave and make funny faces at the people taking my pictures so that no one would start to freak out. If it had been someone else they might have been too short or weak to be able to stay above the water line and it could have been a lot worse. Special thanks to Mike and the crew who got my butt out of that sticky situation.
After having some dinner and a good worship/debrief time I turned in and tried to get as much rest as I could but as some of you campers know, sleeping alongside a noisey river on a rocks is kind of rough.
Tuesday morning came way to early and breakfast was a yummy meal of oatmeal such. We played around a little in the water and packed up our supplies. We had a lot of extra food left over so I grabbed the 30 pound bag of food and tossed it in my pack for a little extra challenge on the hike out. We followed the old railroad out to the power house, tossed our gear in the vans, had some Trail Lunch then hit the water on rafts.
There were four rafts with 5 people in 3 rafts and 4 people in 1 raft. Mike made the people who hadn’t been on the river our river guides to add a special twist on our adventure. We had 4 miles to go to the take out point to switch to funyaks and it was a struggle sometimes trying to get through different shoals and drop offs when the water wasn’t quite high enough to not scrape. My group did an amazing job of manuvering the river and we didn’t get stuck as many times as we could have. At one point we tied the rafts up to a shelf, and for those who wanted to, jumped into a neat flume of water. If you jumped in the right spot it would shoot you underwater down river for 10-15 yards, then you would pop up and swim toward the eddy.
It took about 3 hours to cover the 4 miles and at the takeout point we paired up and launched some funyaks. Now funyaks aren’t that fun, they are two person, non-taking, inflatable kayaks. It takes forever to get them going straight down the river but we covered the last 4 miles in just over an hour. We stopped at GeeCreek Camp and set up our tents, I made the fire (with Mikes help), had some worship, debriefed and then I sat around the fire reading while sipping hot Gatorade.
Wednesday morning started WAY TOO early for me. Since I was part of the leadership team that day, I had to help get the fire going so that we could get a stack of pancakes ready for those who were getting up. Pancakes over a fire is not the most fun thing to do on a campout. You have to regulate the heat and constantly keep an eye on NOT burning the cakes. Things went well with some added veggie meat and warm Gatorade.
I’ll finish more in a little bit…
TO BE CONTINUED…
Geoff, this sounds like a good bit of fun and work. Ah for the days of my younger body and mind. Love ya, Mitzi